Digital planning may not be for you. If you are not into technology, or you don't own (or want to own) a tablet of any kind, that's perfectly understandable. Technology is not everyone's cup of tea. A lot of people prefer to hold the paper planner in their hands, just as an awful lot of people prefer real books to ebooks. But today there is something for everyone!

There are some planner/calendar apps for smartphones and tablets. Probably every smartphone and tablet comes with one built in, and for many, that's enough. It reminds you when it is supposed to...it will tell you when you have an appointment, when to take your medicine, when to have the trash ready for pickup...whatever you tell it to tell you. And there is something fabulous about that!

Getting creative with your planning is something that has grown out of scrapbooking and memory keeping in much the same way Bible art journaling has become so popular. People have different ways of expressing themselves creatively. This is one way.

At this writing, there are two commercially available digital planners for use with the GoodNotes™, Metamoji Notes™, or OneNote™, and possibly other note-taking apps.

This is a brief overview of the two products. I have versions of both; they are both great and are quite similar in their functionality. The difference is in the touches the respective designers have included.

First up: The Seriously Simple Digital Planner™ from Spires Media. At present, the planners are available in an undated version (save a copy before decorating, and you can use it again in future years), and a customized version which can include dates, extra tabs, special "covers" and other amenities at an additional price. For use this year, there is a dated sampler that designer Tam Spires made available for free for people wanting to try it out.

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This is the undated version of the SSP planner. It is similar in construction to the vertical planners put out by Erin Condren ™ and Me and My Big Ideas™, producer of the popular Happy Planner™, The SSP vertical planner features a week on two days, with each day of the week given its own column. Unlike other vertical planners, the columns are free flowing. Those who want to make traditional boxes can use digital washi tape.

This shiny pink glitter planner is one of the custom planners offered by Spires Media. A variety of covers are available including different color leather-looks, glitters and animal prints.

This is the shiny gold deluxe planner with extra tabs for user-designated sections. Note the pretty gold rings!

Tam Spires of Spires Media will design a custom planner to your specifications. She has done horizontal planners, portrait (one day on one page) planners for businesses, ones that are reminiscent of the desk blotters that used to be everywhere.

The other designer of digital planners is Sandy Cruz of digitallyspeaking.net. The 2016 planners have been very popular and users are questioning when the 2017 edition will be out in the Facebook group dedicated to this planner.

Very similar in design to the Happy Planner™ and Erin Condren™, the iPlanner by Digitally Speaking has three boxes per day.

As of this writing the 2017 planners were not yet available for purchase, but according to the Facebook group dedicated to this planner. Sandy has said they should be available this week.

As noted before, the planners from both designers are similar and work on the same principle. They are interactive PDF documents with links built in. Pressing on the tabs will take you to whatever page is linked to the tab.

In GoodNotes™, the links are functional. Unfortunately in Metamoji Notes, the links are not active , although users can create jump links.

The planners can be used also in OneNote™. One user who does this places each month in a different tab within OneNote, which makes it easy to use, although setup is a bit tedious. And the functionality of OneNote™ is superior to anything else. It just depends on which app fits your particular needs.

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Author

Welcome! I'm Dianne, a retired journalism teacher and publications adviser who is still addicted to planning and playing with technology. I share my life today with my husband Buz, six kids and their significant others, 21 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren, 10 goats, 11 chickens, 4 dogs and a potbellied pig.

​I'm into planner sticker designing and have a shop on Etsy and I also enjoy Bible journaling.

I am in no way affiliated with Seriously Simple Digital Planners, Spires Media, iPlanner Digital Planners or Digitally Speaking. I purchase all digital planners and am not compensated in any way for reviews or articles.

Nor am I affiliated in any way with GoodNotes, MetamojiNotes or OneNote or any other app which may be mentioned here.

All opinions are my own.

I am, however, the owner/designer of DiDiDigi-Planners by Grandma DiDi Designs.